Translator training TINET（翻译培训TINET）.pdfVIP

Translator training Anthony Pym (2009) Pre-print text written for the Oxford Companion to Translation Studies. Many thanks for the comments and input from Heloisa Pezza Cintrão (repeatedly), Costanza Perverati, Cristopher Scott-Tennent, Diane Howard, Volga Yılmaz-Gümüş and Ting-ting Hui. 1. Introduction Just as everyone can sing, be it badly or well, so everyone who knows more than one language can translate, to some degree. However, not everyone is paid to sing opera, and not all translators are at the pinnacle of the translation profession. The difference between the various levels may partly be due to training – we train people not just to translate, which they can already do, but to translate well, perhaps for a specific purpose, market or technological environment. Translator training can take many forms. A great deal is learnt on the job, from superiors, colleagues, reviewers and clients, or otherwise through trial and error. The vast majority of professional translators in the world have probably had no training in translation beyond such experience, and the value of experience is thus not to be underestimated. That would be the most primary level of training. At a next level, there is an increasing number of short-term training courses, both in-house and on the open market, that offer translators the skills they require to move from one professional niche to another. Such courses might involve new translation technologies, area-restricted terminology, project management or specific communication skills, especially in the various kinds of interpreting. Finally, there are long-term training programmes offered by institutions of various kinds, increasingly by universitie